About me

Whenever I look at the jungle from my home studio, or over the pacific from the ceramicstudio at the Hui No’Eau I am amazed and delighted, both by where I am, and how I gothere. 45 years ago, waiting to pick up a friend taking a pottery course, I sat down at apotters wheel and made an ashtray. That single experience was so satisfying that aftera while I left an academic career as a physicist to apprentice to a local potter for a year,then moved to Quadra Island in the pacific northwest to set up a pottery (this was the70’s!). After 20 years of making pots, building houses and demanding physical work I burned out,and went back to academia. However, the satisfaction of working with clay was stillcalling, and I came back to it 15 years later in Vancouver, BC. And now I’m making pots on Maui!

I started off being a strictly functional potter, producing a whole range of utilitarian pots,using clay I mixed myself, and glazes I developed to fit my clay. Then I got caught up inthe immediacy of raku, pulling red hot pieces straight out of the fire and having thefinished object available right then, rather than waiting 3 days for the kiln to cool. Imade a range of decorative wall pieces, platters and vases, experimenting with texturesand color. When I returned to clay after my 15 year hiatus, I started working with whiteclay and more colorful glazes, always searching for that perfect glaze for that certain piece.

For the past two years I have been the firing and glaze tech at the Hui No'Eau, the community art center on Maui. I fire the student ware, mix the glazes, and do whatever is needed to keep the ceramic studio functioning. i have also been teaching ceramics at various levels- beginning and advanced throwing, hand building, teapot making, etc. To my surprise I have really enjoyed teaching- especially the moment when students finally get how to move the clay..